A Day of Culinary Filming with a Michelin Star French Chef

We all got up real early one December morning to catch a train to Angers, in the heart of the French Loire region, heading to a place called the Le Favre d'Anne - also known as chef Pascal Favre d'Anne's flagship "Culinary Loft" restaurant. A place people drive to from all over Europe just to experience the man and his very distinctive cuisine.

Our mission for the day: capture enough video to make a short promotional movie about our upcoming Carpe Diem culinary life experience host in April.

Chef Pascal will be at the center of our April event in Lausanne, Switzerland with a cast of culinary artists including Meilleur Ouvrier de France Xavier Thuret (grand cheese master, we kid you not) and other entertaining food artisans like Anais Kerhoas - the Joan of Arc of Plants, as we like to call her.

In any case, this was our first ever chef video session with our Studio LMH® colleagues. Kind of a learning experiment you might say. Although the end result was a short film lasting around four minutes, it took half a day and hours of raw film to cut, extract, and post-produce the final result. But it was sure worth the effort!

Leading our group: our founder and CEO Damien Hubert, and gastronomy guru and "Chef Whisperer" Sébastien Ripari who happens to be a close friend of the chef's. Sébastien did most of the interviewing. We wanted to showcase several important points like the location and beautiful internals of chef Pascal's prized restaurant as he welcomed us to the property with open arms (literally).

Pascal Favre d'Anne and Sébastien Ripari prepping for interviews

Studio LMH® at work

More importantly, we wanted the chef to talk about his history, his dishes, his origins, and of course about his passion for wholesome, earthy cooking. Basically, the same kind of one-on-one conversations you'll see occurring during our Carpe Diem events between our guests, the chefs, and all the artists present.

You'll learn some pretty unique facts about Pascal Favre d'Anne from watching the movie. For instance, he owns his own island - yes, just like Richard Branson except smaller - where he grows a lot of the products he cooks with. He's also married to his lovely sommelière Mathilde (who will be present at the April event as well) who knows a thing or two (or three) about Loire Valley wines. And he invented a dessert based on a small blue flower found exclusively on his island.

It never hurts to sip a little Loire Valley wine between tapings.

Pascal Favre d'Anne having a good time during filming adjustments.

These and several other fascinating "unrevealed" facts and personality traits end up in the movie we shot. If that doesn't make you want to meet this incredible man in the flesh next April in Lausanne, then nothing will. This is the first time Michelin chef Pascal Favre d'Anne will actually travel to a foreign location for such an event. And you can bet he'll be bringing the best of the best of the Loire Valley (wines included) with him on that trip.

Want to meet one of France's most celebrated chefs? Pre-book a reservation with us now. We can't wait to welcome you to Lausanne in April!